o9 Solutions, Inc. > Case Studies > Revamping Retail Operations with IoT: A Case Study

Revamping Retail Operations with IoT: A Case Study

Technology Category

Functional Applications - Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP)
Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Application Development Platforms

Applicable Industries

Apparel
Retail

Applicable Functions

Logistics & Transportation

Use Cases

Last Mile Delivery
Retail Store Automation

About The Customer

The customer is a retail and wholesale business that offers a wide range of merchandise and services. They operate as a merchandiser of consumer products, under their own brands, as well as other e-commerce brands. The company's operations were previously hindered by antiquated and disconnected systems and processes, which led to manual and redundant work. This was particularly problematic in their role as an omnichannel retailer with localized apparel products. The company had multiple solutions in place to support the apparel space allocation and assortment planning process, but these were largely ineffective and inefficient.

The Challenge

The company, a retail and wholesale business offering a variety of merchandise and services, was grappling with outdated and disconnected systems and processes. This led to manual and redundant work, which hindered their ability to serve customers optimally as an omnichannel retailer with localized apparel products. The company had multiple solutions to support the apparel space allocation and assortment planning process. However, these were mostly spreadsheet-based point solutions, lacking simplification, connectivity, and intuitiveness. The company had tried to implement a solution six times with various vendors, but all attempts were unsuccessful. Furthermore, assortments based on consumer demographics and regional variances were not being planned, leading to a misalignment with space allocation and product offerings. The company was also not leveraging any enterprise analytic insights to optimize the space allocation and assortment development processes, relying instead on manual calculations that varied by department and user.

The Solution

The company adopted o9, a single platform that integrates key business decisions throughout the entire assortment planning process. This platform improved the overall collaboration and efficiency of the users. With o9, the company could determine, plan, and execute granular assortment differences that took into account regional differences in size profiles, store-specific space availability, variations based on individual store volumes, and local preferences of consumers. The company also leveraged advanced analytics to develop volume groupings, determine unconstrained demand impacts, optimize packs, and associate stores based on selling patterns across the department. They used the o9 knowledge graph to build a fully integrated pre-season space allocation and assortment planning process. This allowed them to have a single solution that optimizes available space, develops an assortment framework, enhances assortment concepts, defines the buy quantity, creates supplier quotes, auto creates POs, determines the timing of receipts, and optimizes the size and pack configurations.

Operational Impact

The implementation of the o9 platform revolutionized the company's operations. The platform's concept allowed them to develop apparel-specific solutions while leveraging the core constructs of the o9 Platform. The solution was tailored to the nuances of the processes at the company, providing an intuitive and flexible user experience in support of the various stakeholders. The company was also able to replace Excel and legacy systems with o9, which is Cloud-agnostic and aligned with the company's longer-term Cloud Vision of the Future. This resulted in a more streamlined, efficient, and effective operation, with improved collaboration among stakeholders.

Quantitative Benefit